Rep. Gohmert Warns Of Baby Terrorists

June 25, 2010 12:21 pm ET —
Walid Zafar

Speaking on the House floor last night, Rep. Louie
Gohmert (R-TX) continued his assault on common sense by making the
generally nonsensical claim that terrorists were recruiting pregnant women in
order for them to have U.S.-born children who would, several decades from now,
attack the United States and "destroy our way of life." Gohmert made the comments while discussing
border security and Arizona's
controversial new immigration law.

Gohmert: I
talked to a retired FBI agent who said that one of the things they were looking
at were terrorist cells overseas who had figured out how to game our
system. And it appeared they would have
young women, who became pregnant, would get them into the United States
to have a baby. They wouldn't even have
to pay anything for the baby. And then
they would turn back where they could be raised and coddled as future
terrorists. And then one day,
twenty...thirty years down the road, they can be sent in to help destroy our
way of life. 'Cause they figured out how
stupid we are being in this country
to allow our enemies to game our system, hurt our economy, get setup in a
position to destroy our way of life.

Watch:

Law enforcement agencies have long warned that
criminal elements (including suspected
terrorists) are actively exploiting our porous borders to gain entry into
the United States. But Gohmert's claim is new and based solely on
an unsubstantiated conversation with a retired FBI agent. No news accounts or national security alerts seem
to support this conclusion. We contacted
Gohmert's office to seek a clarification but got no response.

It's likely that Gohmert
is using an entirely concocted scenario to foment fear and drive the message — particularly popular among
nativist elements — that birthright citizenship guaranteed under the
Fourteenth Amendment poses an existential threat to national security. Alluding to the threat of terrorism is not
new for Gohmert. For instance, he suggested
last November that Democrats wanted another terrorist attack on New York City as a way to
advance a jobs bill. During the health
care debate, he also made the outlandish claim that Democrats are more willing to
negotiate with terrorists than with Republicans.